


Unearthed.

by Dandelion_queen



Category: British Actor RPF, Oakley, Tom Hiddleston - Fandom
Genre: 1920s, 1930s, Boggarts, F/M, Folklore, Ghosts, Horror, Lancashire, Oakley - Freeform, Smut, True Love, WW1, World War I, blood sacrifice, howlers, invoking spirits, knockers, passionate love, rippers, they are so happy but so weird, twisted love story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-23
Updated: 2015-06-24
Packaged: 2018-03-19 07:38:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 17,110
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3601794
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dandelion_queen/pseuds/Dandelion_queen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Megan uncovers something that should've stayed buried but how can she resist when he looks like everything she's ever wanted? Set in Lancashire, England in the 1930's.<br/>I based this one on local horror stories and Lancashire folklore, it's Oakley but not like you'd expect.<br/>I don't know if there's been a boggart version of Tom but I've given it a whirl.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

"I have told you a thousand times lass and you pay me no mind." the farmer looked down at his wide eyed daughter and lifted his hand as if to strike her, seeing her flinch had him quickly changing his mind.  
"I'll give you fair warning, you stay well away from the marshland do you understand me? You do not cut across it, you do not dally near the woods and you do not go there with your friends. Now get home, I'm rounding up the flock." he stormed off with his dogs leaving Megan alone on the dirt path that surrounded their farm.  
She ran home and ignored her mother's welcoming smile instead she raced to her room. Bolting the door she hurled herself on her bed to cry at her Father's sternness yet again.

Megan was a dreamy child, the farm had been an endless source of entertainment for her when she was much younger but these days the responsibilities piled up in the way of tending to animals and yard work. Megan much preferred to pick wildflowers or play with the geese and chickens then muck out horses and cows. She had arrived quite late in their life, having lost their teenage son Peter in the war they'd thought themselves blessed to be given a second chance with Megan. It was very apparent she was not what her Father expected. She didn't know what Peter had been like in life but her Father idolised him in death and that went someway to explaining how close he'd been to Peter. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"My Mam says there's a boggart on your farm." Amy Miller was the daughter of the most notorious gossip in the village, she was a plump, red-haired child and she would whisper secrets to Megan about all the villagers and they'd both fall about laughing.  
"No there isn't. What's a boggart?" Megan was genuinely curious now.  
"It's a wee ghostie, your Peter used to play with it." Amy offered Megan a mint humbug from her bag but Megan shook her head.  
"That's not true." she snapped.  
"Aye it is! My mam wouldn't lie, your brother used to eat worms with it y'know." Amy stuffed three mints in her mouth as she cheerfully departed that bit of information.  
Megan felt strangely protective of her long dead brother and slapped the bag of mints out of Amy's hand.  
"What'd you do that for?" Amy bent to retrieve her bag of mints and stuck her tongue out.  
"You shouldn't tell fibs Amy." Megan felt the tears forming in her eyes.  
"It's not a fib, she said your Peter used to talk to it and it would change into a big black cat and scratch folk for stepping on it's land and it told your Peter he'd die before he was eighteen and he did in the war." Amy folded her arms smugly and walked back over to her Mother and older sisters while Megan processed the information.  
She had hurried home and repeated what Amy Miller had told her to her parents over tea and sandwiches, she'd had her backside tanned for repeating lies and was sent to bed.  
That was the first night she'd struggled to sleep as her Father's sobs in the next room turned her stomach with shame and grief.

Her curiosity deepened about her brother and she began asking her Mother questions about him. They had two photos of him on the mantelpiece, one in his full military uniform and the other of him at about four years old stood outside their cottage with Mam and Dad on either side of him. All she really found out was he was obedient and brave anything after that and her Mother would firmly close the subject with a distant look in her eye.  
"Do you miss him Mam?" Megan asked.  
"Every day..look at the time! The chickens need feeding." her Mam would often go and do a little chore after talking about Peter. Megan knew better than to broach the subject with her Father.  
She did the dishes and kept all her thoughts of boggarts and her brother to herself.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Another few years passed and Megan got herself a saturday job at the Pie shop. It kept her with a bit of money to buy a few things she wanted but knew her parents would refuse her if she'd asked. They had such an old fashioned outlook on life and constantly got on at her to do this and that.  
"Oh just shut up!" she would say to them when they sent her to do her chores.  
"Don't you speak to your Mother like that!" her Father yelled back.  
"I do my share..I'm not Peter! I don't want this place, I have no interest!" she yelled and for the first time it struck her just how old they both looked. She wished to take it back when she saw the looks they exchanged.  
"I'm sixteen, I've been applying for jobs just so I can leave. I'm so unhappy here and you don't care." She pulled her boots on and slammed the door. She made her way over to the hen house, before she got there she knew something was wrong, it was too quiet. The ground was a mess of feathers and blood...she ran back to get her Father.

 

"Dad! Foxes have had them!" She called and was soon accompanying her Father back to the hen house.  
He looked pale as he took in the scene, the large scratches along the floor and fence didn't seem in line with foxes but what else could it be?  
"Go back to the house and sit with your Mam, I'll be back in a while..go on lass." he forced a smile, it wasn't convincing.  
"Dad?" Megan had a feeling they were being watched.  
"Back to the house with you sweetheart." he removed his jacket and sat on the floor.  
"What are you doing Dad? You're scaring me..." Megan whimpered.  
"Go to your Mam now! Megan..go!" he ordered her firmly.  
"But Dad.." she started but stopped mid sentence at an unearthly growl.  
"Run! Get gone!" her Father shouted.  
Her feet felt weighted down.  
"Megan will you get yourself to the house..bolt the door..go!" he sounded strange.  
The ground seemed to move under her feet and she staggered backwards, another piercing howl made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up.  
"Are yer stupid lass? Go!" he growled at her.  
She ran.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He's free and attached to Megan. Only time will tell if that was a good idea on her part.

It had been four years since they'd lost him. The farm went to ruin, her mother stopped working and Megan abandoned all notions of leaving after that fateful night. The villagers avoided them both, the only trip Megan would take would be to flog a few eggs and home grown vegetables to the local shop. If she hadn't seen it with her own two eyes she never would've believed it. They'd listened as the shrieking grew louder outside their cottage.  
"I can't stand it!" Megan yelled and opened the door, the noises grew louder.

She had sprinted towards the hen house ignoring her mother's warnings to come back.  
The scene was like nothing she could've prepared for, blood and fleshy pieces covered the floor. A darkness awakened within her and she grabbed the nearest thing to hand, a yard broom. Her eyes scanned over the area and she saw a tattered strip of her Father's shirt and his dismembered hand. Her stomach lurched and turned over.  
Not knowing how she managed to speak somehow the words came out loud and clear.  
"Yer will'na come in...I'll have you salted and fed to the pigs you bastard!"  
A deep vibration had her nerves pulled taut with fear but she wouldn't back down.  
"I'll be after you my dove." a deep voice told her.  
She span round and saw the blackest shadow retreating back to the darkness of the fields.  
"I'll be waiting too!" she shouted after it.

They hardly slept anymore and though exhaustion gripped her Megan at least had youth on her side. Her mother wasn't afforded that luxury and grew weaker, bone tired she spent most of her days sat in her chair at the front of the fire while Megan tended to the vegetable plot and hens.  
The knocking seemed to start up when she tried to catch a few minutes of shut eye.  
Five sharp raps on the door and each time there was no one to be found.  
"Ignore it." Megan would snap.  
She never could.  
The cat returned and began sitting on the stone wall not long after the knocking started.  
It never dropped its gaze from their door and would hiss when Megan went to chop firewood everyday.  
"Hiss at me once more you flea-bitten mangebag and I'll chop you up." Megan warned it on one cold autumn morning, she was surprised when it leapt off the wall to curl and purr around her legs.  
After that she allowed him in the house.

"Unearth me and let me be free..this weight, this weight is too much for me." The chanting started at night. The cat would purr its approval of the words and Megan would pull the pillow over her head.  
"I will get the priest if you carry on!" She shouted angrily after another sleepless night.  
"None will come to where you be, please my sweetheart unearth me." the voice sang back at her.  
"I will not. You killed my Father and our Peter." she faced the wall and hummed loudly till the singing faded out.  
A whisper right in her ear had her bolting out of bed and screaming with fright.  
"Not I. Never would I. Unearth me and I'll help you with the farm, I'll keep you warm..I'll keep you warm." the warm breath had danced on her skin awakening other longings she wouldn't admit.

The cat kept watch over the house and soon enough her Mother took to it as pet.  
"I'm ready now." the old woman said while stroking it's silky softness. "You'll take me to them?"  
The cat gently butted against her chin.  
In the doorway Peter and her husband stood and smiled, light illuminated them both.  
Megan came back with a basket full of eggs and found her Mother resting in her chair, whiter than chalk and smiling.  
She dropped the eggs and wept. The cat nuzzled against her for a moment and lapped at the yolks.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Megan had her Mother buried with Peter and her Father's remains. She'd pawned everything of use to pay up and had stood at the graveside alone. The villagers watched from across the green. She walked home with their mistrusting eyes upon her and the curtains twitching at every house she passed. 

Back home she sat in the chair and watched the rain pit-patting on the window. The cat meowed but she ignored his noise.  
"None but you." a whisper in the silence.  
"I'm leaving." she told it.  
"I'll follow thee to the dark and light, you'll never be rid o' me. Unearth me and I'll treat thee so kind, no struggling or emptiness if you'll just be mine."  
The cat leapt up on her lap and settled down.  
Megan rocked in the chair and pretended not to hear the voice.

She slept fitfully and woke with a sore head. The house seemed to fill with silence more than ever, her Mother had never been much of a talker but now it was an almost unbearable quietness. She dressed quickly as the early morning chill wrapped itself around her.  
Her legs carried her out of the farm and over across the untended fields. The pinkish dawn light filled her with a feeling of happiness, she would just walk and see where she would end up. The mist on the low grounds made it increasingly difficult to navigate, Megan heard a sorrowful cry and had to stop walking.  
"Dig for me."  
She shook her head and was rewarded with a push that sent her sprawling on the floor.  
"Dig for me and I will give you all that you desire, breath life into me, let me live as I was once before and your wanting and sorrow shall be no more."  
Megan sat up and looked for any sign of what to do.  
"Unearth me and you shall want for naught." It tempted her.  
"How?" she asked.  
"I'm as old as the land that your kind did steal from me, tha'll never be free so give yourself over to me."  
So she thought it over. If she'd have been her right mind she would have fled.  
Around her the ground rumbled, she pulled at the moss, her hands dug into the richness of the damp soil, her fingers bled and her arms ached but lower and lower still she dug with both hands.  
Her bloodied fingertips felt the hard stone.

Covered in muck she struggled to loosen the stone, further around the ground she pushed and wriggled at the corners of it's surface. It took the best part of the day till finally it lifted a little. Megan heaved with all her might and pushed it to one side, her legs sank into the slutchy hole and she felt the earth swallow her whole.  
The mud filled her mouth and she tried to scream but the cold earth kept filling up her mouth and robbed her of the chance.  
"Now girl I have thee..give me a name or I'll let you die." the voice taunted her.  
She scratted at the earth but felt a strong pull around her waist.  
"You name me and you'll ne'er be rid but tha'll be happy." it promised.  
She spat out a mouthful of mud and took in a lungful of air, coughing she managed to get the majority of dirt out, at least enough to speak.  
"Oakley." she half cried.  
Megan was pushed upwards with strong hands.

She fainted away at the side of the boggart hole as he rose up, free from the pit and named at last. He would take on the shape of a young man for his new keeper.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I suppose in this day and age boggarts would be classed as a mixture of a poltergeist and a shapeshifter.  
> This is loosely based on a story my little nanny used to tell us as kids, there was a young woman called Martha who's land was on the leys and riddled with boggarts. Some weren't as kind as others. After the loss of her family she dug up the boggart stone and was tempted into marriage by one, they lived quite happily and when she died he sank back into the earth.  
> Google Lancashire boggarts and a whole bunch of stuff is there to read, it's quite fascinating and a little grim.  
> Boggarts have warned people when their death approaches, they have tricked people into all manner of unsavoury things and yet all they want is their land returned. They knock on your doors at all hours, pull up your flowers, sour your milk, burn your bread and smash your crockery and they're the reasonable ones! ;) if they're really malevolent they scratch and bite, the stronger ones can kill too. Some go as far as saying they are a true earth based spirit that is older than any living thing..I don't know about that but the idea of a temperamental shapeshifting being is a joy to write.  
> They reckoned if you named them they'd rule the roost and if you moved they'd follow you. Basically there is no escape.....


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Megan wakes to find it's not a dream and Oakley begins to work his charms.

Megan opened her eyes, overhead the clouds and late afternoon sky had darkened.  
It had obviously been a nightmare brought on by grief, it had to be. She sat up and felt the blood rushing in her limbs, the sight of her muddied and bleeding fingers made her tremble. What had been going on?  
Oakley watched her with interest, she was confused as her kind were known to be.  
"Is yer wakened now?" he asked.  
She turned seemingly shocked to hear a voice so close by and looked at him crouched beside the freshly turned over earth.  
Her hand clapped over her mouth in shock at his naked and dirtied state.

"Who are you?" she asked and averted her eyes from him.   
"I'm your Oakley." he pressed a clump of sphagnum moss over a cut on her leg and pressed. She remembered it all now and cried out, his long fingers held her by the leg.  
"Stop tha' fretting. I mean you no harm." he soothed.  
"What are you?!" she whimpered.   
"I'm yours." he insisted.  
"No." she burst into tears and struggled away.  
"You could run but I'd be there afore yer, you could scream but I'll shout louder, if you hide I'd find yer. Tha'll nay be rid of us for I am your land and I am your man. If you want it the hard route I'll do that even if it pains me but if you come the down't easy path with me I'll make you the happiest lass alive." he took a step towards her but she held her hand up to ward him away.  
"Please...love. I would treat you kind and fair, you'll want for naught." he went on.  
She shook her head.  
"I'll give you all the land can offer, I can spin and weave my gifts so clothes you would never need, no struggle or fuss and you'll never be cold or hungry. I would love you as a man loves a woman, completely and with devotion just say yes." he reached out for her.  
She stepped back, her eyes regarded him with suspicion.  
"None would love you as I will. I'll make yer life a happy one and an easy one, I can work the land as though there are fifty working hands. I will keep your house and hearth clean..I can cook and you'll never be short of a good meal, I only wish to be yours."  
Her will was weakening as he spoke, he could sense it.  
"Have me as your man, I'll keep you warm, give you babbies, I can show you things no other could."   
The grin on his face as her little hand took his outstretched one was the grin of one who knows he's half won his prize.

They walked back away from the marshland, back over the fields and arrived at her cottage at dusk. She opened the door, the fire was lit and the smell of stew greeted her.  
"How?" she looked around.  
"I have my ways." Oakley grinned and picked up the black cat who affectionately rubbed against his cheek.  
"I need to get clean...so do you." Megan began and wearily removed her corduroy coat.  
"Go out back and see what is there." Oakley nodded towards the door and sat himself down at the front of the fire.  
She opened the back door and stepped back with surprise at what she saw, the old tin bath was filled with hot sweet smelling water and the ivy off the back wall had formed a shelter overhead.   
"Oh it's wonderful thank you." she turned to see him now as clean as she would soon be.  
"H..how?" she took in his tanned skin and golden curls, momentarily her eyes wandered lower to that thatch of dark hair and what lay there proudly between his legs. The heat flushed her cheeks, he was clean from head to toe and smelled liked a warm spring day.  
"I just can." was all he said.

The bath was perfect and left her feeling revitalised. Megan spied the clean linen hung on the door knob and mentally thanked him. She darted back indoors and approached the table where he sat shyly. He'd already ladled her a portion of stew and waited for her to sit. Although nowhere near comfortable with his nakedness the table hid his lower half and kept her nerves at bay.  
Her mouth watered at the smell of her food, it had been a while since she'd had such a hearty meal.   
"Mutton and barley?" She asked dipping her bread into the stew.  
"Aye." he said and began eating. He ate three more bowls and half of a fresh loaf which appeared from out of the blue.   
She ate her fill, the warmth of the cottage and the meal soon had her nodding out.  
Oakley helped her to bed and left her with the cat for company.   
He had work to be getting on with.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I should point out that boggarts cleaned the house, did the yard work and kept the land in good shape. They're also know for being able to just take things by just wishing for them hence the bread and stew and freshly lit fire.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Megan has an awakening, the cat isn't what it seems and I bet none of you know the deal with Oakley yet. Nightmares and smut in this chapter.

Megan was woken by sunlight streaking up the walls, she knew she'd slept in late. The bedroom door creaked open and Oakley stood there with a cup in his hand. He had a pair of her Father's trousers on tired up with a bit of string. Still barefoot and shirtless he offered her the cup.  
"Nettle tea." he said as she sniffed the contents.  
She held it but didn't take a sip, Oakley noticed and knew why.  
"I have'ner tainted it, it's safe to drink."  
Megan placed it on the floor. "I'll let it cool."  
"I am not what took your Father if that's what you're thinking." He looked a little sadly at her and left her in bed. As soon as he shut the door she poured the tea out of the window.

"What took him then?"  
Oakley turned round to see her stood there, she fiddled with a button on her old cardigan and waited for his reply.  
"A ripper, that's what your kind call them." he replied.  
Thinking back on that night Megan felt her stomach turn over, there'd been so much blood.  
"I am not of them, me and yon man are different." he nodded towards the cat.  
"Garrick show her." Oakley watched her disbelief as the cat took his real form. No bigger than a milk jug and with long black hair Garrick looked like a tiny wizened old man.  
Megan screamed with fright and backed into the corner.  
"You're frightening me." she whimpered with her hands over her ears, her eyes shut tight.  
"You've nowt to fear of us. We'll look after you." Oakley told her. He pulled a chair out and sat down. Garrick shifted back to his feline form and leapt on his knee.

"Why did they kill them?" she asked.  
"Rippers travel the leys and survive on flesh. They eat the livestock, eat the babbies left in their cribs, eat the young lasses on errands, eat the drunks after their cider. They go missing and are never seen again. Your Father knew what it was and he saved you." Oakley explained.  
Megan felt the sobs bubbling in her throat. "He hated me."  
"Never that. He loved you, Garrick here was your Peter's guardian but Peter did not listen to his warnings and he met his end on the soil of another land. We can warn you but if you go against it then there is nowt we can do." Oakley said.  
"My brother died a hero, he didn't have much say of if he went to war or not. I don't suppose you would understand that." Megan hissed at them both.  
"I understand well enough the ways of men, I've been here longer than any living creature. The loss of a good man at the hands of another is a tale that will play out as long as men walk this land." Oakley sounded weary as he spoke.  
"You threatened me the other day, you said you'd let the earth swallow me whole." Megan snapped but he merely shrugged.  
"And I would have too. Your father had me caught under the stone as though it was my doing. He hid a lot from you and your Mother, had he left me he'd still be here now but I'll spare you all that. A man is irrational when he grieves."  
Megan had heard enough she ran to her room and bolted the door.

Oakley heard her sobs and busied himself. There was to be no reasoning with her today, if anything he thought he'd told her too much. The cottage was soon spic and span so he went outside to sharpen the scythe, the surrounding yard needed much of the weeds cutting back. Garrick waited at the foot of the cottage door and basked in the afternoon sunshine.

Megan had fallen into a fitful sleep brought on by her tears. Her dreams were filled with terror and strangeness. She found herself running over the marshland as her feet sank deep into the rich moisture, the mist grew thicker and she fell to her knees. Megan could just about make out a figure walking towards her.  
It was her brother as he appeared in the photo, he looked down and held out his hand for her. She took it and he pulled her to her feet with a smile. His mouth moved as though talking but no sound came out.  
"I can't hear you!" she sobbed.  
He went rigid all of a sudden, the front of his clothing seeping red with blood. She watched as he collapsed and grabbed at him.  
"Oh no...no!" Megan pressed her hand to his shirt front. He was warm, his heart beat timidly under her hand and his breathing grew laboured.  
"Peter." she watched as his eyes glassed over with the dreamless sleep of death.  
She tossed and turned in her sleep, the blankets wove about her as she dreamt, in her dreams strong leafy vines wrapped about her but in the next moment she was with Oakley, it made no sense. He had her huddled against him under a blanket, she was sat astride his lap and his hands held her at her backside, a slow rise and fall of her hips on his and their eyes locked on each other, he bucked up into her and her head fell back with a cry. Megan woke up at that moment and turned on her side, the wetness between her legs took her by surprise. She checked to make sure it wasn't her courses and was even more confused when her hand came back clear.

She spied on him through the back window. Oakley had cut away the overgrown weeds and grass. He shone with sweat and his skin had already taken on that tanned golden hue a lot of the farm labourers had. She watched fascinated as he worked, the ripple of his muscles as he swung the scythe had her rooted to the spot. She'd never taken much notice of men at work and as her Father had got older they downsized to a small holding so there was hardly any need for spare hands.  
'He's beautiful.' she thought to herself.  
"The devil usually is." she remembered the words of her old Sunday school teacher and stepped away from the window. She busied herself with by dusting but it was hardly needed. When Garrick leapt up on the table she skittered away from him, taking refuge in the shed outside. 

She planned to wait till they slept but it was not to be, she could make out Oakley's shadow as he stood near the stove later that evening. He came to the back door and called her name. She had every intention of ignoring him, the shears from the wall dropped to the ground and made a little snip, Megan watched as they sprung up from the ground and stuck in the wooden door. The row of her Father's various tools that hung on the wall dropped to the ground simultaneously and startled her. With a shriek she bolted for the cottage and didn't pick up on Oakley's devious smirk to Garrick.  
He placed the casserole dish on the table. "Just in time, chicken broth." She sat and ate without a word, across the room Garrick gnawed on chicken feet and wondered if their new mistress would ever warm to them both.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A full eight days passed in much the same way. She rarely spoke, ate the meals and kept to herself. At night Oakley could hear her fevered dreaming, she moaned and writhed but never quite reached the peak her body craved. She'd been sheltered that much was obvious, he never once picked up on any whisper of her touching herself but he could smell her arousal for him when he came back from the fields. He'd planted a good crop of vegetables this year and would take them to market with her if she would come. He lured a cow over from Tatton Green and was setting his mind to getting chickens back in the henhouse. A mortal man would've dropped dead by day three from the workload, Oakley barely felt the strain. The breeze on his skin and the rain against his back only invigorated him more. After a full day from dawn till dusk he made his way back home, the smell of food greeted him this time when he opened the door.  
"Hotpot. I hope you don't mind." Megan looked at him shyly and placed the dish down.  
He ate his fill then sat down near the hearth, he never slept much as his kind rarely needed too but he did feel the need for a lie down after such hard graft. He settled down to the sound of dishes being washed and Garrick purring at his feet.

She tried not to look at him, keeping her hands busy picking apart the seams of an old jumper. He looked innocent with the orange lick of the fireside upon his face, his curls had grown more wild and unruly, the urge to feel the soft springy ringlets between her hands kept her pulling at that wool. He needed to wear more clothes because the trousers were always hanging too low and his bare chested appearance wouldn't be appreciated if one of the villagers happened to pop round. She laughed a little at that thought, none of them visited these days. He stretched out in his slumber and sent Garrick slinking away out of the room. The sinful ache that had plagued her for days started to bloom between her crossed legs. She knew a little of what went on between a man and woman courtesy of hushed whispers from Amy Miller at school. Her mother clipped her round head when she'd dared to ask anymore so she left it, if it was anything like watching the ram rut the sheep she wanted no part in it and yet...

Megan discreetly pulled the jumper over her lap and cast a nervous glance towards Oakley, confident he wasn't likely to be roused she tightly pressed her thighs together in an attempt to ease off the ache. Oakley could sense her actions yet he continued with the act of feigning sleep. She rocked her hips gently and allowed herself the luxury of looking him over, she swore a ghost of a smile played on his face as he slept. Little did she know how much she was affecting him. Another squeeze of her tightly clamped thighs had her suppressing a moan. He yawned and stretched out, his sleepy eyes bore into hers making her cheeks heated with desire.  
"Let me?" he asked her softly.  
And the girl who had always done as she was told nodded mutely.

Megan took his hand and was pulled down alongside him on the shabby rug. She trembled with nerves, her hands reached up as she dared to feel hair. His smile was dazzling, warm and filled with a tenderness she hadn't expected.  
"Can I?" She found her mouth was suddenly dry.  
"Let yourself be bold." he untied the string that kept his threadbare trousers up and ran his hand up her side to bring her closer still.  
She'd never been kissed, her untrained mouth on his made her feel shameful until he took the lead. Slow and yet strangely urgent Oakley plundered her mouth with his skilled tongue, soon Megan was following his lead with a passion of her own.  
Megan's unsure hands caught at the buttons of his trouser front, tentatively she undid each one, Oakley found himself being caressed yet she still couldn't allow her eyes to trail down and see what she had within her grasp. Solid, velvet flesh unlike anything she'd ever felt before.  
"Come now, let yourself look. There is no shame in what we are doing." he told her, his hand wrapped over hers and Oakley showed her how he liked it best. Megan was a quick learner and almost had him spending over her fingers, too long he'd gone without the pleasures of the flesh. They say there is no better feeling and he who had lived longer than them all knew it was no lie.  
"Ah..but wait." he gently withdrew her hand away and sneaked his own up her skirts, woollen stockings and bare flesh made him hungry for the feel of that part her that would yield once he got his fingers there.  
He found her soaked and without undergarments save the stockings, she tensed as his fingers parted her but offered no protest, she clamped her thighs shut however when the tip of his finger found her swollen pearl. The unfamiliarity of being touched there made her breath come in short bursts.  
"Truly..you have never?" he asked and rubbed his cheek against her knee.  
"Never." she managed to say, his strong hands began to insistently push her legs open once more.  
"I will show you this and if it is not to your liking then I shall bother you no more but if however it is then keep your bedroom door unlocked for me and I will show what it is to be taken thoroughly and completely. This is just a taste of what I can do for you my love." Oakley's voice was like silk, comforting and sensual.  
"I'll keep you warm." his breath was dangerously close to her sensitive folds, the first steady lick of his tongue along her slit made her reach for his curls and Oakley knew without a shadow of a doubt the door would never be locked again.  
Oakley took his time, sucking her tender flesh between his teeth and tongue he made easy work of her. She came apart and sang his praises as her juices filled his mouth, spent and trembling she looked at him with lust as he stroked himself and came hotly over her soaking cunt. 

He kissed her mainly to allow her to taste herself on his lips, quickly slipping his softening cock back into the trousers.  
"Just a taste Megan, have me as your love. One night I will give you to decide." he stood and helped her to her feet.  
She took him by surprise when her hands reached almost aggressively round his neck and she clung to him.  
"Little love you must sleep." he untangled himself and watched her unsteady footing as she went to her room. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"I suppose you listened in you sly rogue." Oakley watched as Garrick turned back into his impish self.  
"What do you take me for?" Garrick replied sourly. "Don't ruin this for us."  
"Ha! I will have her as mine as you will see." Oakley grinned smugly.  
"That was never in any doubt, try not to hurt her." Garrick tutted and picked at the leftover hotpot.  
"I would never." Oakley frowned but he knew he could, in fact others hadn't been so lucky under his care. He needed air all of a sudden and made for the cottage door.

Outside the moon was hidden by thick clouds and another mist looked to be settling in. Oakley felt the distant tremor...how long would it be? Would they come this way or not?  
"This one is mine." Oakley growled.  
A chorus of howls and supernatural shrieks rang out.  
"Get back to your stones!" he spat.  
He went back inside to bolt the door and stewed in his annoyance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm trying to not write this too much in my local dialect as broad Lancashire can be quite full on. 'Yon' tends to mean over there or your and 'sen' means self. I'm hoping it's pretty apparent most farmers had pesky boggarts bound by salt and stone. Poor oakley..or whatever he is. :)


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Garrick tells Megan a few secrets and slowly the story is starting to build. I'm keeping it in the theme of old timey story telling, you get the details but you don't need to turn every stone over.  
> There's also first time sex which I'm not really a fan of but let's just say it's given her an appetite which is needed.  
> I've taken a full week between chapters but the weather has been nice here so I was making the most of it. X

Sleep did not come easy for Megan. Every time she shut her eyes she could see Oakley between her legs, her hand holding his hair. She turned to face the wall and exhaled, if anything the feverishness had increased since their encounter earlier. She hadn't bolted her door, the uncomfortable feeling that she was hoping he'd come in and finish what he'd started made her feel ashamed. One night to think it over?  
The answer was there in her unlocked door.  
He stayed true to his end of the bargain though and slept on the rug.

There was a full spread on for breakfast, the amount of food on the table puzzled Megan. They certainly didn't have that much in their pantry so where had it come from?  
Oakley made his presence known in that moment as she mulled it over.  
"How did you sleep?" he asked but his smile hinted that he knew she'd had another fitful night.  
"Poorly." she sighed.  
They sat down to eat and both made a show of ignoring the tension. Megan was just about to sip her tea when Oakley cleared his throat as he stood up.  
"Have you thought on it?" his expression was extremely earnest.  
Megan had done nothing but think on it, winter would be coming up and that wasn't an easy stretch. The desire to move on had ended when she'd lost her family, the farm was all she had left of them now. She wasn't exactly beating suitors off with a stick and the idea of living her days out as some ostracised spinster didn't sit right with her either.  
"I'll have you for as long as you'll have me." she replied.  
"I'll do anything for you my little love if you do little things from time to time to help me." He drew her into his arms and kissed the top of her head.  
"What sort of things?" Megan wasn't too sure of what he might want.  
"Do not fret Megan, all in good time." he reassured her.  
Megan hadn't exactly had much affection shown to her, of course she knew her parents cared in their own way but there was never tactile displays of warmth.  
To be held by him made her giddy.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"You'll have to tell her." Garrick snuck up on Oakley while he collected the eggs of the newly acquired hens. He wasn't in the mood to hear Garrick's lectures today.  
"In time, I will have her bedded and content then I will put it forward. She has been sheltered Garrick, she grieves still." he filled the basket up at an unnaturally fast pace.  
"If I didn't know better I'd say you're fond of her." Garrick lit his small pipe, a plume of purple smoke rose up and he sighed.  
"I've been fond of them all so far old friend. You know me well enough that I like their woman folk." Oakley grinned and had Garrick tutting.  
"Aye too much for what you are. How many times have you been put to rest? I'm getting too old to keep luring them out to release you." Garrick took another drag on his pipe.  
"Come now, if you could look like this you'd be much the same as myself." Oakley admired his form. It had served him well enough each time he'd manifested in it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He'd never forget that day.  
They'd chased the poor lad down on their horses. The boy had begged of course, they all beg when they know they're about to meet their end even if it's a silent plea. There'd been no real harm about the lad, a mischievous nature perhaps, quite tall for one of them. His only crime was setting the village girls laughing and blushing. Men have been killed by other men for less. The four of them beat him while he begged for mercy. When it was over they panicked and pushed him into the bog. The cool brown liquid soaked into his lungs and he lies there undiscovered to this day.  
Oakley took a form of him each time. Tall, handsome and with a rum, knowing smile. A terrible waste of a young life cut short.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Oakley brought in the basket of eggs and placed them on the table. Megan was shocked at the abundance there.  
"How is this even possible from six hens?" she scratched her head and waited for an answer. She didn't get one but made do with one of his kisses that silenced her and left her breathless before he went back out to work. Garrick watched her humming to herself as she knitted. Green girls fall so easy and this one was no exception. Even now he knew that despite all the hardships of the past few years and the fear of what Oakley truly was would be pushed to one side for a handsome face and a few home comforts.  
He'd got them in there at the right time, it was time for a new beginning for all three of them.  
"You don't have to stay as a cat you know." Megan looked over to him.  
Garrick allowed himself the luxury of stretching back to himself while she stared at him.  
"You're a tiny thing. I think you and me need to have a talk."  
Garrick scaled the chair and sat on the arm rest, she eyed him curiously.  
"What would you know mistress?" he gave a bow of his head.  
"Everything."  
And so he told her.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Oakley wandered in at dusk with two rabbits strung over his shoulders and a smile so self assured of what he was to be getting later on. The grin slipped away when he spied the large leather bound book on the table and Megan sat with her arms folded.  
"Well before you even think of sweet talking me some I shall tell you I know. Garrick has told me and if you think you're in charge around here then I assure you're mistaken."  
This was not what he'd wanted at all, as soon as they're told they got like this. Instantly angry he slapped the rabbits on the table and headed back out. He fumed, Garrick never once considered how it might make him feel. Now Megan knew she could control him his freedom as a man felt threatened, he had wanted it on equal terms now she knew she was of the cunning folk that was most likely over. He sat in he sweet smelling long grass and let the sun heat his coldness. When it sank over the hill he made his way home.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Where is she?" he snapped at Garrick, he casually pushed the book on the floor like a grumpy child. Garrick nodded towards the bedroom door, he never indulged these type of moods.  
"She could've called you back at any time, yet she did not. There is a fairness with her that many of her kind lack and you'd do well to go in there with a good frame of mind." he puffed on his pipe.  
"Why? She owns me now wether I want her to or not, if you and your loose tongue hadn't told her it would've been the other way." Oakley sounded gruff with annoyance.  
"It is never the other way as well you know, you were hers before she was ever yours and you told her as much as she dug you out. What difference does it make? You are bound to her." Garrick disappeared with a humph and left Oakley stewing once more.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Megan waited nervously with the sheet pulled up, she didn't know if Oakley would come. She thought on what Garrick had told her, she could call him in at any time and have him do as she bid but that felt odd. If he came at all it had to be of his own free will.  
That book had been a find, Garrick told her which bricks to pull away and there it was.  
It would be a lot to take on, her parents had hid away from what they were but Megan had no intention of doing that anymore. The door creaked open and she bit her bottom lip to hide her smile. He walked in with his head bowed and sat at the foot of her bed.  
"Oakley? Do not hang your head. I was harsh earlier but mebbe's you can see why? I will not order you around as long as you continue to be kind to me. I need you as much as you need me." her voice had lost the cold edge of earlier. It was indeed true that they needed each other.  
"I wish to come and go as I have done so far." he sounded tired.  
"That you can do. I hold no sway over you, as long as you are fair then you may do as you wish." her hand reached for his and gave it a gentle squeeze.  
"We can learn together."  
Her trusting eyes had him caught, how he loved looking at such eyes. Her sincerity touched him, there was to be no issues doing what she wanted of him now.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Oakley dropped his trousers and he slipped under the covers, laughing as she turned her blushing face away. "Still shy of your Oakley? That won't do." his voice was a deeper timbre as his hands roamed under her nightshirt. He cupped each breast, the soft skin was a decent handful for him as thumbed her rosey nipples to full attention. She was swallowing her cries, unsure of what to do but still eager for the feel of him. Arching her back up for him so he would continue to play with her breasts.  
His lips were soon where his hands had been and she liked that some too, her legs wrapped about him. Oakley took his hand and was satisfied to find her wet, he delved and played with her honeypot, soft wet flesh that yielded to the invasion of two fingers.  
Megan cried out then, Oakley felt the small membrane giveaway and slowly stroked her walls, he took his time.  
Never once did he look away from her face as his fingers sank into her heat. Megan gripped his arm, he stopped and claimed her mouth as he allowed himself that moment to get into position. Megan felt the nudge of his cock against her slit and surprised herself by angling herself so he could slip inside. In a movement so fluid he undulated his hips and had her pierced beneath him. It stung her and he stilled, her nails dug into his back as he moved..slow at first but not for long. He had to claim her, his hips drove possessively forward. He held back, mindful of hurting her but Megan would have none of that. She bit his shoulder and urged him on. "Harder."  
So he did, the mattress springs creaked and pinged under his forceful thrusts. The groans and sighs came in unison now as they both strove to reach their bliss, Megan just about went before Oakley, the flickering heat of arousal pooled in her belly and set her off with cry and upon feeling her pleasurable contractions along his length Oakley spent himself within her. He lay on his back breathless and sweat soaked, her little hand crept gently over him and slipped lower. When he met her eyes this time there was no hint of shyness and she wore a grin so wicked that he knew he'd refuse her nothing. 

The morning came too soon for their liking and they reluctantly got out of bed. Oakley opened the window and plucked at the ivy there. Megan wondered why he was muttering to himself, he broke off a piece and called Megan over.  
"Give me your hand." he smiled as he tied the ivy around her finger. The sensation of prickly heat made her shake her hand.  
"What have you done?" she panicked and tried to pull the ivy off her finger but it wouldn't budge.  
It had set into a hardened ring.  
"A token of my devotion."  
He went down to prepare breakfast with a spring in his step.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oakley and Megan have a bit of a tiff, it might seem non-con but it very much isn't. Garrick isn't impressed by their antics.

"I'm going to take the eggs up to Tethulls, we can shift a few there." Megan was feeling up to a walk today and the chance at earning some money made her a little excited.  
"I'll come with." Oakley offered.  
"You'll have to put a shirt and shoes on...sadly." a ripple of laughter burst out of her as he sulked. "I could look at you all day boy but I wouldn't get much done and the women will be after you if you go around like you are. I'll get one of my Dad's shirts."  
Her hand fisted in his blonde curls and she tugged his head back for a kiss which he eagerly went in for.  
"Thank you." he grinned. He loved her newfound fire for him, she had shaped up to be quite the woman since he'd wakened her desire.

The boots just about fit him and the shirt was fine enough with the sleeves rolled up. They each held a handle of the basket and walked leisurely down to the village.  
"Don't talk so much when we get there. I don't want any trouble, they're a funny lot and it's only worsened since my mum passed away." She spoke quietly as they neared the village green.  
"It's because you're of the cunning folk. They've always been mindful of your family. Your parents tried to stay away from what they are..fat lot o' good that did 'em. Now there's just you..tell me did they come round and help after your Father or Mother? Did they treat your Mam kindly after the loss of Peter? I would say nay judging from your face.Why trust those that live in the leys? You'll never fit in around here." Oakley surprised her with his little speech.  
"Thanks for that. I needed a good kick in the ribs today." She snapped at him.  
"I'm just saying it as it is." he went on.  
"Well don't. I know I'm not well liked, at least I know why these days." Megan felt irritated with him and took the eggs. Oakley waited near the church gates for her return.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Megan! How are you?" Megan instantly tensed as she heard the familiar voice of Amy Miller from across the pathway. The eggs had been sold and she'd come out of Thethull's feeling optimistic for a change till she heard THAT voice.  
"Amy." She said curtly and gave a tight smile at the baby in the carriage.  
"It's been forever since I saw you last." Amy was sharp of tongue and eye and she looked Megan over and settled her eye on the ring that now glinted with a gold sheen and made Megan shiver. 'How?' she wondered to herself.  
"Are you married now Megan Green?!" Amy looked excitedly at the ring.  
"I..well..I.." she stammered as though the words wouldn't come out.  
"There you are my dear." Oakley waved across the pathway at them both and smiled pleasantly at Amy. "and who is this little fellow?"  
Oakley bowed and offered his finger to Amy's baby who took it with a smile.  
"Harold." Amy tucked her hair behind her ear and blushed.  
"He's a bonny one and he favours his lovely Mother." Oakley let his eyes wander over Amy's body and had her swallowing and unable to look away.  
Megan felt a pang of jealousy watching this.  
"So you and Megan.." Amy finally croaked out.  
"Married last month at Cottingdon, we've had quite the courtship." Oakley gave Megan's backside a playful whack that made her jump.  
"Oakley!" she warned him and ignored Amy's little giggle.  
"How did you both meet?" Amy looked at both of them, she wouldn't let it drop.  
"My Father bought her sheep. A bad business.." Oakley bowed his head.  
"Oh indeed." Amy looked thoughtful but she didn't fool Megan for a second. She was just digging for gossip.  
"I've forgotten the basket..I'll go get it. Nice seeing you again Amy." Megan went to retrieve the egg basket and left Oakley stood with Amy.

"So you're restoring the farm back to its glory? You'll have your work cut out." Amy gave him the once over. Oakley could play this game all day if he felt like it.  
"I'm not shy of graft." he smirked.  
"I should say so, you're a big lad." Amy licked her lips and looked him wickedly in the eye.  
"More than you'd know missus." he watched the blush creep down to her bosom.  
Her eyes dropped lower and she boldly looked at his trouser front.  
"You might find out if our paths cross and it's just me and thee." Oakley teased.  
Amy gave a little squeak and hid her grin.  
"I'll hold you to that." Her eyes glittered with desire for him.  
He walked over to Tethull's and left her stood there, breath coming in short bursts holding the handle of the baby carriage.  
"I'll be seeing you." he said and turned away to hide his amusement.

Megan scowled at him as she came out of Thethull's and pushed past him. They got to the village outskirts and she snatched the ring off and chucked it at Oakley.  
"You made a fool of me! I mean nothing to you do I? I just about heard all that shit you said to bloody Amy Miller of all people." she was furious with him.  
"Stop your nonsense lass, I was playing with her. It stopped her asking too many questions..anyway I dare say it made her week let alone her day. I wouldn't think her husband is giving her much in the way of compliments." He shrugged as though it wasn't a problem.  
"I don't care. She has a big mouth, she'll be telling everyone I'm married and my husband likes her. I don't need that and anyway..I wouldn't marry you for all the tea in China." Megan huffed at him.  
He picked the ring up from near his feet and held it out. "Put it back on."  
"No." She pouted.  
"Megan..put it on." he growled.  
"I don't want to." she stepped away from him.  
"I'm warning you, put the ring back on." Oakley sounded stern as he spoke.  
"Don't feel like wearing it." she started walking away from him and smirked at his downcast expression.  
"Megan! Put the ring on." he found himself grinding his jaw in annoyance.  
"Make me!" she whirled round and looked at him as though he was nothing. He felt her contempt of him and didn't like it one bit.

He focused his energy and had the ground rumbling beneath her feet, he watched as she panicked and darted down the grass embankment in shock. She tumbled and did a full rollover, her dress had torn and her knees bled. She looked up at him and then cowered as he strutted down to where she lay.  
"Put it on." he offered the ring out and smiled when she held her hand up, he slipped the ring back on her finger and crouched beside her. It had lost its golden glint of earlier which puzzled her again.  
"I don't give you permission to talk to Amy Miller." She watched as his face fell, her first command to him had been brought on by jealousy.  
"Very well. I don't give you permission to tell me what to do." Oakley fumed at her order.  
"It doesn't work like that Oakley as well you know." She sat up and picked leaves and twigs out of her hair.  
"Think yourself lucky I don't make the soil open up and swallow you where you sit." He spat at her, she pursed her lips at that comment off him.  
"Think yourself just as lucky I don't banish you out of my home you ley walking nothing!" She scrambled to her feet and attempted to climb up the embankment away from him but two strong hands caught at her ankles and pulled her along the grass.  
"Stop!" she called out but Oakley did no such thing.  
Further along he dragged her as she dug her hands into the grass to stop him, a futile effort as he soon had her surrounded by trees and bushes. Hidden from view he unbuckled his trousers and laughed as she hit at him. His hands went up her dress and tugged the underwear she wore off in one go.

He pinned her to the ground and nudged her legs open with his knee, he could sense her fear but the hint of arousal was there. The way she hit him lacked any real fire and was more for show..if she liked to play that game then Oakley would comply.  
"You feel like mine." he growled at her.  
Her arms wrapped around him, he'd won this one.  
"I am not yours." she purred.  
Oh but this one did have fire!  
He fucked her hard on the ground, she held nothing back from him, mud streaked and hungry they matched each other in passion.  
Oakley took her legs and lifted them so he could take all of her, each stroke was deep and animalistic from him now. She was crying out to each slap of his flesh on hers.  
"Anyone can walk by and see you like this." he whispered hotly into the shell of her ear.  
She came from just the thought of that and Oakley felt the smug satisfaction of a man who knows how to make his woman come apart from words alone. He reached his peak with ease after that, a deep wave of pleasure coursing through his body as he came inside Megan. They lay wrapped in each other's arms for a while, Oakley whispered his sweet nothings and with the press of her body against his he knew he was very much forgiven after their spat.  
He helped her to her feet and held her hand as they walked back home.

Garrick lay at the front of the fire in his cat form and stretched out when he saw them both. "A bath my love?" Oakley asked her.  
"Please." Megan ditched her muddy boots and made her way out the back to where her bath was ready.  
Garrick waited till he knew she was safely out of earshot.  
"When you've quite finished romancing her then maybe you could leave her be enough to start practicing her ways."  
Oakley shrugged and helped himself to some bread. "She will when she's ready."  
"Not good enough. If that ripper comes down this way and takes her will you be happy with that?" Garrick was in no mood for Oakley's nonchalant attitude.  
"I won't let it." Oakley snapped back.  
"You've said that before and as I recall you've let it take each time." Garrick lit his pipe and frowned at Oakley's saddened face.  
"I never let it! I never once let it. Do you think I would've let it take what I loved? I've fought it each time Garrick, it is stronger than I." Oakley spoke quietly as though he didn't want to admit the truth of it.  
"All the more reason to get her ready then, she is strong but unsure. If we three work together then I think we'd stand a fair chance of gaining the upper hand." The cloud of purple smoke off the pipe made spirals in the air that looked like snakes wrapping around each other.  
"Happen you're right, give me a few days. I'll let her be till its night time." Oakley knew it was for the best. He stood near the fireside and allowed his body to absorb the dirt on his skin, he was soon as clean as a whistle and smelled like a freshly turned over soil.  
Megan called his name and Oakley looked over to Garrick before rushing out to her. He was unable to resist the call of the siren, he was every inch a man in that respect.  
Garrick tutted, you can't argue with those who think themselves in love.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Little bit of smut in the first part and then our gang start preparing for the darkness heading their way.

"Is it morning? Don't say it's morning. I just want to stay in bed with you." Megan pulled the blankets over both their heads. She ached in all the right places after yesterday.  
She could feel Oakley's grin against the soft flesh of her breasts. She arched up as his mouth closed on her nipple, she pressed him against her. He nipped her with his teeth causing her to grab at his increasingly wild curls, they'd been yanked so many times from yesterday afternoon to evening that they looked truly untameable.  
"What's to stop us? I want to spend all day and night in that gorgeous honeypot of yours." his voice was all silk, he knew how to get what he wanted as he slipped his hand between her thighs. "You're petals are dewy for me." Oakley dipped a finger inside her and smirked when her muscles clenched around it.  
He teased her folds, spreading the wetness over her clit which throbbed under his fingertip.   
Megan didn't understand her body half as well as Oakley did, he knew where to touch or lick, when to be forceful and when to barely touch her. He explored her body with his lips, tongue, fingers and cock. It felt sinful to even think it but he worshipped her when they lay together. He had shown her what she'd been missing.

He took her again for how could he not? Laid out before him in all her glory, Oakley loved the feel of her, her scent, her willingness.  
"I don't understand what you do to me." she whispered with her eyes closed tight and her feet clasped together around his backside.   
"I give you what you need, I fill you up. How long were your nights before I? Scratting and mauling at yourself without knowing what to do. I showed you how to touch yourself, how to touch a man and how to feel a mans cock as he fucks you till you come apart." he watched her eyes open, pupils blown wide with pleasure at his words.  
"Oh..Oakley.." her legs fell to the side suddenly slack as she came for him. Oakley took his time after that, slowly grinding his hips in circles against hers with every stroke. She felt divine to him. He spent himself inside her and knew at the rate they'd been at it her courses would be late. Satisfied at that thought he leapt up out of bed and set about making her breakfast. She would need her strength, no mortal man could fuck as much as he'd fucked her and no mortal man would ever have his Megan.

Garrick lay in his cat form across the floor where the sunlight hit. He was clearly ignoring Oakley.   
"Oh come on now old friend. I am bewitched by her, you can't hold a grudge for that." Oakley went to stroke him but winced as Garrick lashed out and clawed his hand. His blood ran brown like muddy water, another reminder if what he was.  
Garrick quickly shifted and ran under the table away from Oakley's feet kicking out at him.  
"A taste of what will come but not by me. He will tear her apart and you'll sink back to soil without her, left waiting for the next one and that might never come. She's the last of her bloodline, you can travel the leys now you're free but none succumbed to you in an age. They are different now, they believe less in the old ways. She is your last chance if you wish me to be honest. Rest off your rutting and help me to help her. If we rid this land of that ripper you can take her morning, noon and night." Garrick hoped his words would have an impact.  
"You are right. Forgive me, I just enjoy this form when I am in it and Megan is so very lovely to bed down with."   
Oakley made breakfast and mulled over what to say to Megan.

 

She stretched out and grinned when Oakley came in holding her mother's old tea tray with toast, sausages and a cup of tea.  
"You even brought it in to me, thank you." she couldn't remember ever having her food brought to her and especially not in bed.  
"It's no bother, listen now I'll be doing some digging today. I know it's a a change of plans but..you have a chat with Garrick and he'll put you right." Oakley kissed her cheek and gave her a sad smile, he could feel the rejection radiating off her.  
"No stay with me." she held her hand out.  
"I would love to do that but it wouldn't be wise." Oakley felt himself weakening.  
"I'll order you then." Megan snapped.  
"No little love please don't do that..just trust me when I tell you I need to do this." Oakley turned away from her pleading eyes and hurried out of the cottage.  
With no appetite all of a sudden Megan took the tray to the kitchen and looked for Garrick.

"Garrick?! Want some breakfast? I have sausages." She called out looking for the small figure. She didn't have to wait long as he came from under the table patting his belly.  
"Has your sweetheart gone to work?" Garrick scaled the chair and hopped onto the table with ease.  
"He has." Megan pouted.  
"Well that's a start. It's good he's heeding my warnings." Garrick bit ravenously into the toasted bread. Megan took a chair and watched the little imp eating, it made no sense that this creature was here in her kitchen or that Oakley wasn't human.   
"So come on then wise man what's the plan?" she asked.  
Garrick wiped the butter off his face with a dish cloth and asked for his pipe which Megan got from the mantelpiece.  
"Get the book girl, we have much to learn." Garrick lit his pipe and settled down.  
"We best get a shift on then." Megan smiled back at him and Garrick felt something akin to relief within him. He didn't dare hope too much but he had a good feeling about Megan.

Oakley returned at sundown truly worn out and caked in mud. Megan had already set the table for him. She'd picked a few wild flowers and arranged them in a vase as a centrepiece, the smell of good food made the hunger gnaw inside him.  
"Eight pits dug lover." he proudly told her.  
Megan stood up on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek. She knew why he'd been hard at it today after Garrick's teachings.   
"We're going to hold that fucker when he comes." the way she looked at Oakley made him smile darkly.  
"He might not come down the ley." Oakley stroked his hands up her back.  
"Garrick says he will, same one who took my Dad. I'll be ready for him." there was a serious determination in her words.  
"As will I." Oakley agreed.  
The stir of wind down the chimney made the flames of the fire dance and Garrick lit his pipe off a flicker.  
"Tomorrow we learn defence." he puffed at his pipe sending the purple smoke up above his small figure.  
Each of them sensed something was coming their way.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Something wicked this way comes...

Amy Miller spent a lot of time pushing her baby carriage about the village and county lanes. To the casual observer she was a doting young mother giving her baby Harold a lot of fresh air and keeping herself fit in the process but to those who knew her a little better there was talk she had a thing for a certain young gentleman. She'd done herself no favours by telling of how Megan Green had a very dishy husband. It didn't take a genius to figure out that she was mooching about in hopes of seeing Oakley, thankfully for Amy her husband was blissfully oblivious to her current love sickness. So far Amy hadn't caught a glimpse of him, Oakley usually hid himself by camouflage against the trees or ground when she would come looking. Megan had given him his order, he was bound to obey her. 

If Amy had been less concerned with trying to find Oakley she would've picked up on all the tiny warnings that tell us when we are being watched. That unmistakable stillness when you feel their presence and look up and catch whoever or whatever's eye. The birds had stopped trilling in the trees and the shiver as a slight chill streaks your veins.  
"Hello there Amy Miller!" Oakley called out to her from half way over the field.  
Upon hearing his voice she smirked and waved to him. Oakley made his way over to the dirt path where Amy stood. She was unable to stop her eyes lingering over his work sculpted lean frame.  
"Imagine seeing you here." Amy glanced down at her sleeping baby and pulled the pram hood up to shield him.  
"A spot of good fortune for both of us." Oakley flirted. "I see he's asleep."  
Amy walked a short distance and left Harold under the shade of the trees before Oakley took her hand and led her to the soft moss patched grass.  
Half hidden by the trees he undressed Amy Miller, he took her against a tree, her legs wrapped around him and her hot eager cunny milking him. 

"Did you want this?" he growled in her ear, her nails dug into the flesh of his back.  
"God yes!" Amy cried out, she kissed him eagerly, his tongue seem to grow fatter in her mouth. She pulled away confused and met eyes as dark as ditch water, gone was the sky blue of Oakley's eyes.  
"I've heard you Amy Miller. You walk and look for him but he hides from you." A hand tightened on her throat causing her eyes to bulge, she gripped at the hand that held her.  
"You're a vain to girl to think every man you meet desires you." Oakley lifted Amy higher by her neck causing her feet to kick out.  
"And one more thing...I am not who you desire." Oakley's appearance changed before her eyes, gone was the handsome face and body she had enjoyed a mere moment ago and in it's place stood a creature so foul that Amy tried to scream. The being tightened it's grip and watched as the light in her eyes was snuffed out like a candle before bed time.  
She crumpled to the floor like a broken doll and it's large claws dug into the soft skin of her thighs, it gouged a chunk of flesh out of her body and stuffed it hungrily into it's mouth.  
With the hunger awakened the ripper feasted on Amy till there was nothing left of her, bones were crunched to nothing, the flesh of her was tore off like a sunday roast and each of her pretty eyes swallowed like a delicacy. Her heart was ripped from within her carcass and devoured with extra relish. The ripper turned over the soil and every trace of Amy Miller was gone from view for good.

The baby's cries made the beast sniff up at the air, it tracked the scent and rested two large claws on the side of the baby carriage. Harold ceased his crying.

At the cottage Garrick sprang up with a yelp. "He's close!"  
Garrick had felt the rise of the ripper from dawn. Oakley had helped Megan brew up the potions to wound the ripper, potions that went back centuries. They knew they would have to lure it to the fields, they would stand a good chance of holding it there and with a stone to weight it there it would stay.  
Garrick had already laid the enchantments upon the stones. They had to be ready.  
"It's fed." Garrick bent over and retched as he caught the whispers on the air of what had happened.  
"We have another few days then?" Oakley asked hopefully.  
"I'm not so sure, we need to get you practicing your words to bind him Megan." Garrick motioned over to the book.  
"Has it ever worked?" Megan had to know.  
"I've been held." Oakley offered.  
"No, I mean has a ripper ever been held?"  
The way Oakley dropped his head said more than she needed to know.  
"Listen here, I'm not willing to go into this with nothing more than the knowledge we will be able to bring the fucker down. If we are going to do this then it's not enough to have hope or belief that we can but we have to know we can. You've both seen and heard things and you must know of a way that would be better than just blind hope..I don't want to die yet." Megan exhaled after her little speech.

"There are some ways but.." Garrick looked to Oakley who shook his head.  
"Go on?" Megan waited for a shred of something, anything to make her think this was doable.  
"Garrick..no." Oakley was stern as he spoke to the tiny boggart.  
"Nothing as such mistress." Garrick lied.  
"I don't believe that for a second." Megan felt he was holding back on something important.  
"It's a darker magic. It's rituals involve things I'm not sure you'd be willing to do." Oakley spoke up before Garrick did.  
"There's a lot I'd be willing to do if it meant getting rid of a thing that has cost me my family." Megan asserted.  
"You just said yer din't want to die!" Oakley growled.  
"Is that what would be required of me?" She asked them both.  
"I would hope not but it could happen. If you wish to dabble in the darker energies then there is always a chance of it going awry. I wouldn't like to lose you Megan." Oakley told her. He knew the energies that she could tap into would change her very soul, those that went down that path never came back the same person.  
Garrick knew it was a risk but he'd guide her if she chose to work with the earth and blood.  
"I'll do it then." she said.  
Oakley ran his hands through his curls in exasperation. "I need a minute."

He left her to discuss it with Garrick, he made his way up to the vegetable patch. He didn't need to do anything but at least a bit of physical activity would take his mind off the current situation for a short while. The touch of the soil caused him to tremble, he could feel the change. The ripper was edging ever closer down the ley and it felt strong.  
"Don't you come for her." Oakley spoke out loud. He knew it could hear his words.  
"You've done enough, leave this one be."  
The wind picked up all of a sudden causing the tree branches overhead to creak and groan.  
A chorus of distant howls started up and he bared his teeth, hurling the spade across the vegetable patch in temper. 

 

The knock at the door later that night startled the three of them. Megan had been half asleep on her mother's old rocking chair while Oakley had pottered about, he was fretful and restless. She peered through the curtain and saw the Stanford brothers, Geoff Foley and Charlie Fulinger, she knew them all from school. All of them good, hard working lads. She opened the door and felt Oakley's presence behind her.  
"What's to do?" She asked the four of them.  
"Sorry fer't late hour but Amy Miller's babby was found in in a bad way in his pram earlier but Amy in't nowhere to be found. The plod is searching all't area and a few of us is helping out as her lad is fair distraught over the matter." Geoff Foley spoke up.  
"Come in." Megan stepped aside and breathed a quick sigh of relief that Garrick was back in his cat form.  
"Proper sorry for this Megan." one of term mumbled, they removed their caps and stood awkwardly near the window.  
"No bother. So Amy is missing?" Megan's guts churned as though she had an idea of what had happened.  
"Aye, we's asking your permission to search your land. Din't want you being afeared of the dogs and us lot mooching about." Charlie Fulinger kept his eyes in the floor.  
"Search where you need, if you need extra eyes and ears then Oakley and myself will help yers." Megan offered.  
"It's no place for a lass at this hour." Geoff Foley muttered.  
"Half o' the things I do are no place for a lass but I still do them, farm was crying out for extra hands but there was only mine as I recall so yes I will be looking. My farm, my land, my rules." Megan knew she'd shamed them what with them being farm labourers but she was in no mood for the 'little lady talk.'  
"Alreet then. We'll split in two's and meet back here." Megan sat down a pulled in her work boots and jacket.

They all filed out of the house, Oakley made a little small talk with them. He could sense there was no harm to them, obviously a superstitious lot with the way they behaved.  
Megan was the last out, the light from the fire and lamp made her silouhette appear darker as she stood in the door way. Garrick weaved about her legs and knocked the yard broom resting against the wall over.  
Megan picked it up, stood with the large black cat at her feet and the broom in her hand she made the assembled group apart from Oakley swallow nervously.

"It's had Amy Miller?" Megan whispered as they made their way over green hill.  
"All signs point to yes. She's gone. We'll just have to pretend we know nowt." Oakley kept his voice low.  
"Poor lass." Megan might've disliked her but no one deserves a fate like that.  
"Poor babby, he's missing a mother and been robbed of his voice." Oakley knew baby Harold would never be able to speak, the ripper had caused people to loose their sight or voice when it made itself known. When confronted with such evil the mortal brain can shut down as it tries to make sense of what is before them.  
"Geoff Foley said the babby's hair has gone from red to bright white and he can't make a sound the poor mite." Megan shivered at the thought.  
Oakley took her in his arms.  
"I won't lose you."  
She looked up at his concerned face and forced a smile.  
"You won't."


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Megan learns something about her family and the end edges ever closer.

The pink light of dawn had each of them heading back to the cottage, wearied and with all their hope faded the men drank the tea that Megan made. There was no easy conversation around the kitchen table. When the small party left to go to their own homes Megan finally breathed a sigh of relief. Oakley pressed a kiss to her cheek, his eyes full of concern for her.  
"Go to bed. You need your rest, Garrick and myself will keep guard here."   
Megan was reluctant but Oakley wouldn't take no for an answer, he carried her with ease to her bed and pulled her boots off. He made easy work of removing her clothes, when she went to grab him he "Ah-ah'ed."   
Instead he pulled her cotton night shirt over her head and lifted her gently back into bed.  
"Sleep."   
Megan sighed but the softness of the mattress and blankets soon lulled her to sleep.

"I can feel him nearby." Garrick said.  
Oakley sat in the old rocking chair, a steely look upon his face.  
"I feel him too..he's ravenous." Oakley could feel the rippers energy along the ley, it pained him and made him feel extremely protective for Megan.   
"Cursed beast is circling, he knows we are here. He wants her.." Garrick reached for his pipe and began packing his herbs in the end.   
"He can't have her." Oakley growled.   
"Better get yoursen ready then." Garrick closed his eyes and blew rings of smoke out of his mouth.  
"I'm ready, are you?" Oakley asked. The little imp's relaxed manner irritated him at times.  
"Always." Garrick assured him.

Megan heard the tap at her window, she opened the curtains to the view she'd looked at all her life except the ground had opened with a jagged ugly split that seemed to surround her cottage. She tried to step back way from the window but found herself unable to lift her feet. Panic set in as the fresh opening of her Father's land filled with blood. She could smell it, taking her back to the days of the sheep being slaughtered for meat. The coppery scent permeated the air and made her retch. This wasn't the blood of animals that much she was certain of.  
"Megan!" she heard the voice of Amy Miller nearby, without thinking she tightly shut her eyes.  
"Help me..help me please!" Amy pleaded.  
She wouldn't look.  
"Coward." she heard the venomous hiss and forced her eyes open.  
Amy stood near the window, not too close mind.  
"I'm sorry." was all Megan could offer.  
"Not as sorry as you will be when he gets his hands on you Megan Green. It wasn't my time to go, I shouldn't be dead." Amy's voice grew weak.  
"He hurt my Harold." Amy raised her head and had Megan covering her mouth, her eyeless sockets seemed to stare at her. Megan's feet finally moved just as Amy was whipped backwards into the river of blood that had rose up and surrounded her home.  
The figure of a man broke the dark red surface, griping at the soul the figure dragged itself along the ground.  
"Peter?" she recognised him as he neared closer.  
"Megan." he held his hand out for her, she grabbed it...then his grip splintered her fingers, Megan let out a shriek of pain.  
"Is he keepin' yers warm Megan? Look at thee, ready to strike me down as though thy could but oh..think on lass, yers spreadin' tha' legs for your Oakley and what is he? If they knew what he was they'd burn you, they've done it afore for your kind. I would not harm thee..if you'd be mine. I would be truer than your Oakley. I would love you and you alone and give yer babbies, give yer comfort. Come to me my pretty lass, I'll make you..." before he could finish Megan lashed out and snatched her hand away.  
The beast rose up, his face changed with a sickening crackling sound as the bones reshaped themself. Claws like hooks hung off his fingers and he stood a full head taller now. Megan whimpered but refused to back away.  
"We coulda had summat but now I'll settle for eating your heart." the creature spat.  
With a push of courage Megan found her voice finally.  
"I'd eat yours if I thought you had one, be with you? Never a million years..my Oakley in't like you. I don't care what he is but I know he in't cruel or evil. If I were you I'd let that ley take you elsewhere because I will hurt you." her voice trembled and she hated herself for it.   
"I can smell your fear." the beast laughed.  
"Are you sure that's not you? You smell like the cowshed in summer." Megan sneered.  
"Tha'll regret this girl, by't time am done tha'll know pain. Your brother knew pain." The beast's words hit a nerve, Megan spat and watched as the saliva clung to the neck of the ripper. It turned its back and laughed cruelly. She watched as creature dove back into the pool of earth and blood. Megan woke up screaming to Oakley holding her arms looking concerned and Garrick muttering an enchantment to ward off bad energy.  
They would have to start the safety ritual as soon as possible.

"Bones?" Megan asked as Oakley tipped up the small leather pouch on the table. Garrick nodded, he crouched low chanting to himself.  
"Of your kind, fingers and toes. Garrick can work with them well enough." Oakley told her, he reached for her hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze.   
"I won't be askin' how you come by 'em." Megan truly didn't want to know.  
"The ripper is not being shaken, he wants you. I need to tell you summat." Oakley swallowed. Megan had a feeling she didn't like where this was going to go.

"I fucking knew so! I knew so!" Megan ran her fingers through her hair and paced about.  
"It makes sense now."   
Oakley could sense her hurt and went to hold her but she pushed away from him.  
"Come now." he said gently and settled her against him.  
Truth be told Oakley felt she'd taken the knowledge quite well.  
"Peter was the rippers lad." she said to herself disbelievingly.  
"Aye, he was. Your Father couldn't give your Mam children or so he thought. He asked, he went on green hill and he called up whoever was nearest and made a bargain. You should never bargain with that what you don't understand. He knew what his family was, he knew he could call upon the land and ask but he asked the wrong one." Oakley explained.  
"How would my Mam lie wi' a creature like that? Is he my Father?" she looked up into Oakley's sweet face and waited to hear what he would say.  
"My little lass, you know we can look like whomever we choose. He might have taken your Father's form. Even now I can take the shape of another if I wanted. You are every inch their daughter, they couldn't believe their luck when they had you." As Oakley spoke he ran his thumb along her lower lip and drew her in for a kiss. Megan took a breath and pressed into his familiar warmth. He made her feel so safe.  
Oakley could feel her emotions under the surface, like leaves caught in the wind they skittered in different directions.  
"So why was you bound then? Why'd my dad put you to earth?" Megan searched his face, she would know if he told her a lie.  
"Your Father were worried when he knew your Mam carried you, fear mostly. He lured us out and bloody had me burnt with salt then buried me. I was under that stone a long time till you heard me. Got a few of us, he was protecting his family." he felt her hands on either side of his face, he couldn't look away.  
"I'm sorry he did that Oakley." she apologised.  
That she would seek to make amends for something that wasn't her doing, she loved her Oakley, she knew that without a shadow of doubt.  
"I would never do that to you." she had the fire in her eyes as she gently shoved him away from her all of a sudden.   
"Garrick wants me. I'm starting it off." she turned and left Oakley stood there before he realised the weight of her words. Whatever she was to discover he knew it could change her for good.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The end...

"It stinks like dung! What is it?" Megan sniffed the small clay pots contents and shuddered with distaste. Garrick tutted and settled on her shoulder, he'd expected a few complaints.   
"Oakley, bring yoursen to the table." he called out.  
The bowl was placed in front of Megan, Oakley took a seat with them both. He wanted to be there to comfort her if she needed him and he had a feeling she would need him after this.  
"Knock it back girl. It won't harm you that I can promise but it will show you things you've never imagined. This potion was a gift we gave your kind. Tha'll expand yer way o' thinking. That is to say it will awaken parts of yers that yore kind no longer use. You don't use half o' what's in here." Garrick tapped her forehead.  
"Will it hurt?" Megan asked as she lifted the foul smelling liquid to her lips.  
"Possibly." Garrick answered truthfully.  
"I'll be here little love." Oakley spoke up.  
The smile she gave him almost broke him before she drank the potion. He watched her eyes roll back and reached for her hands. 

She gurgled and stiffened in the chair. Garrick leapt off her shoulder and smacked his hands together, in an instant cloudy grey mist surrounded her.  
"Megan?! Megan?" Oakley held her hands tightly and waited.  
"You best not have harmed her imp." he growled.  
She remained motionless, her limbs hard as though rigor mortis had set in.  
"Wheeesht Lad, her's reet. Her'll be flying far in that part of herself. You ha'fort leave her be till her's found the answer." Garrick didn't seem concerned at all. The imp had done this before and he would know instantly if something was amiss.

Megan found herself walking through dewy grass, the leaves on the trees overhead rustled. Everywhere looked wild, untouched. Tangles of tree roots and clumps of moss patches tripped her as she walked further and further.   
"Hello?" she called out.  
Silence answered and so she carried on walking, the stark grey sky was soon obscured by the dense forest. She felt lost.  
"I don't like this." Megan stood and looked around.  
It was then she heard the crack of twigs and men shouting. She ran.

The forest cleared too quickly, now she was in the marshes. Her feet moved of their own accord. When she stole a glance backwards she could see smoke rising from the small huts in the distance. What happened next startled her.  
Oakley ran past, he wore a loose fitting cloth shirt and tattered breeches. He was clearly in a panic and seemed oblivious of her presence.  
"Oakley, I'm here!" she shouted. He looked around and Megan found herself knocked off balance, she fell forward clumsily.  
The next thing she knew she was up to her knees in the boggy waters while she watched them beating Oakley. She couldn't see their faces, their features appeared blurred but Oakley was still as he was. They rained kicks and blows upon him, he no longer pleaded but stayed silent.   
"Stop it!" Megan screamed but no one looked up towards her. "Leave him be!"  
One of them jumped, his feet landed heavily on Oakley's head as he lay on the ground. The final brutal act and all she could do was stare helplessly as Oakley's feet twitched.  
She wept and cursed at them all, watching as they lifted his lifeless body and pushed him in the deeper part of the bog. He was soon gone from view and all Megan could do was wail in despair. 

Another scene was brought forward in her mind. This one was a young girl crying. For some reason she knew Oakley had been this girls lover.   
"I curse them all! I will not rest till they pay for what they did." The girl swore to the skies.  
"I would have their children die, their wives broken." she dropped to her knees and pulled at the ground.  
"As long as I shall live I curse them! The Arrowsmiths! The Picksleys! The Greens! I want them to suffer for what they took from me." she pressed her face into the earth and sobbed.   
A thousand swirls of light and energy wrapped itself around the girl but she was oblivious to it all, the human eye couldn't pick up on it. Her tears wet the soil.  
The darkest form of earth spirit heard her.  
She brought the ripper.  
His large frame stood before her and she looked up, there was no fear in this girls eyes as she looked him over.  
Then she smiled balefully.

Megan jerked forward in the chair, Oakley caught her head before it hit the table and pushed her back into the sitting position.  
Her eyelids fluttered open but Megan remained unseeing of her surroundings. She travelled further into the woven personal histories of each family. When the last of it hit she finally awoke with an enigmatic expression on her face that neither of them could read.  
"Garrick, there in't no Arrowsmiths or Picklseys left around here is there?" Megan rasped. The bearded little man shook his head, he knew it had finally sunk in.  
"There in't no Greens either 'cept me."  
She rose from her chair and took Oakley's hand, he followed her without a word.

 

"Whatever you are going to do.." Oakley began but Megan placed a finger to his lips.  
"We both know." her hands clasped his shoulders and she stood on tiptoe "You'll let me go."  
Oakley felt the weight of command behind her words and was helpless to change it now.  
He had to obey her, it was what has kind did. It didn't mean he had to be happy about it.  
She was here, flesh and blood. Her heart beating strong, it's steady thump the rhythm of life itself. He loved her, the realisation of where this was headed was like a blow to the chest.  
"You'll do it." she looked him in the eye.  
Oakley shook his head and held her tightly.  
"You'll do it. I would have you do it this for me my Oakley." she watched the streaks of puddle brown tears on his face. She asked a lot of him.  
"The ripper will cease to be once I am gone for there'd be none of the cursed blood left. Better it be at your hand than his claws." he heard the tremor in her voice and had to steady his own.  
"Why would you have me do this?" he asked helplessly. "Half o' them yer seek to protect will be dead soon once the war begins. They'll never know what you did for them."  
Megan understood his reasoning but her mind was made up.  
"Until the ripper can have me it will harm 'em in it's hunger, I may not like 'em all much but I won't have their blood on my conscience. This way is better." she explained sadly.  
"How is it fuckin' better?! How is it? I'll kill that imp, he's got in yer head with his tales." finally his temper surfaced at the horror of the situation.  
"Oakley it should've been this way years ago, yer never faced it. Running or hiding won't save me. It din't save the other lasses nor save the lad who you look like." Megan cupped his face.  
Oakley didn't want to harm her but she ordered him to do so.

Megan lay on the large flat stone in the field opposite her house. The holes that Oakley had dug in the field two days prior surrounded her. It was strangely funny to her now to realise that it had come to this.   
None had defeated the ripper before.   
It didn't matter in any case, soon she'd be gone. She'd sent her Oakley away after having him cut her deeply along each of her arms, his eyes pleaded with her to stop but she knew he had no choice in the matter. He'd sobbed, deep in his despair.  
Her heart broke at the pain etched on his face when she forced him to go.  
"Come on then!" she called out. Her blood covered most of the stones surface and her hands trembled as she drank another of the potions that Garrick had concocted for her passing.

At the cottage Oakley raged. He smashed all the crockery, the chairs were thrown into the stone walls and lay about in splintered pieces but still nothing eased his pain. Nothing was left in one piece by the time he was done. He could feel the ripper circling and knew his Megan was bleeding to death.   
"You let me down again Garrick." he spat.  
"It was meant to happen like this lad." he lit his pipe and closed his eyes.  
Oakley had never hated in more in that moment.  
"You've sent my love to her death." he growled.   
He tore his shirt off, digging his fingers into his chest, the flesh punctured and the soil clung to his fingers.  
"If I'm not like she then why does it hurt each time? Why does it hurt here?" he closed his palm over the wound in his chest.  
"We feel their pain and suffering as if it was our own. They are placed into our land and we absorb their feelings as they live and then as they die, it will always be so." Garrick gently explained, he then took a large pull on his pipe to relax himself.   
He had faith in Megan.

Since Garrick's potion had took hold Megan saw them all. They danced upon the ground or took flight, so many energies that were both beautiful or dangerous, each mingling and weaving as they saw fit.   
They ceased their merrymaking all at once.  
Within seconds nothing moved save for the rumble of the ground as the ripper tore his way through. He sniffed the air, an unnatural rumble came from his chest. He was different, he was more flesh and blood than soil and spirit.   
Megan didn't look away as he neared closer.  
His eyes were cold, devoid of any sort of emotion.   
"Exaudi sanguinem.." she called out.  
It's large clawed hand closed over her mouth.  
So she carried on within her head "sentire spiritum meum."  
The ripper leaned over her.  
"Pathetic."

His tongue dipped into the wound of her arms. She was to be his final feast and he would thoroughly enjoy taking her apart. A sweetness met his tongue, the ripper was unprepared for that. The rich copper taste was all he knew when he ate..she'd been tainted. He spat it out but her taste clung to his lips.  
The grin on her face was one of triumph.  
"You took my brother..me family are dead. They're all dead..." she spoke calmly now.  
The ripper raised up, his powerful thighs pinned her against the stones smooth surface.  
"So yers done what was asked of you but tha won't be going to rest. I promise that much..I deny yer that peace." Megan sneered.  
He struck her across her face, she saw stars.  
"You don't get to rest or heal." she knew she was close to passing out but she wouldn't stop taunting the creature.  
The ripper felt his centre of energy flicker, what had she consumed to make her so toxic to him?  
"Your child's bones. You killed your own son..is it sinking in now?" Megan growled.  
The confusion was evident on the rippers face.  
"I have taken my brothers bones, he was of the cursed blood but he was your son. Does my brothers blood settle within you?" She moved swift and the ripper knew he'd been tricked, she took the old knife of her mother's and thrust upwards, the blade pierced through his eye.  
She reached for the pouch of salt that Garrick had given her, with every handful she threw upon the ripper the more his flesh cracked and leaked. He roared and tore at himself in agony.  
"Help me.." she sobbed from underneath the dying beast.

 

Oakley heard her. He was swift out of the cottage and cleared the wall with a leap to get to his Megan.   
When he reached her she was already close, the other side called to her. The ripper was laid out on the stone, chunks of him had already come apart. A thick red soil held together by nothing more than a curse.   
"If you go then so do I." Oakley wrapped his arms around her.  
Once that thought would've filled him with dread, it no longer did.  
He stayed with her till the end.

 

He didn't break apart. In the physical sense at least...  
It slowly dawned on Oakley that he was still the same as before. After he'd lost the others he'd returned to the earth without much protest for he didn't have a say in the matter.  
As the sun rose he carefully laid Megan to rest. She deserved that, he would keep her on the land of her ancestors. Oakley swore to himself he would stay close to her for as long as this form of his would allow.  
Despite his grief he buried her and took the wheelbarrow to take the clumps of soil that had once been the ripper as far away from Megan's resting place as he could. He dumped the whole lot including the wheelbarrow in the river and walked away without a backwards glance.

Garrick was still sat on the mantelpiece when Oakley returned. The imp was wise enough to remain silent as Oakley cleared up the broken furniture and plates.  
For days Oakley laid in Megan's bed, silent and unmoving waiting for any sign that he was to crumble so he could return to the soil and to be with Megan.  
None came.

Twenty one days passed. 

He finally got up and slammed about the kitchen making himself busy. He never said a single word to Garrick as busied himself. The little imp knew it was time for him for them to part ways, they'd been loyal to each other for an age but now it was time for Garrick to move on. He'd done all he could and knew Oakley would be fine.  
Oakley didn't even glance his way as Garrick stood near the open cottage door.  
"Ask for her." he said and then shifted to his cat form. "Farewell my friend."  
He left Oakley sat staring into the flames of the fire.

When night fell the howling and screaming from the marshes and trees began, no human ear can hear the noises they make unless they truly allowed themselves. Tonight was wild and humid. Oakley seethed as their noises peaked his anger.  
He found himself stood in the field while the rain pelted down. He savoured every drop of it against his skin.  
"Give her back to me." he shouted.  
The rumble of thunder answered instead.  
"I want her." 

"I'll keep you warm..dig for me and I'll give you everything you need." Oakley froze as he heard her voice. Distant but most definitely Megan.  
"Unearth me." he dropped to his knees and clawed at the ground. The soil began to move as though it had something to be rid of, Oakley dug at a frenzied pace with both hands.   
Megan pushed upwards as though she was swimming to the surface of the old duckpond except the dense soil didn't move as easy water.  
She could hear him, she could feel him in a way that was new. Every part of her nerves sang to be free of the ground. He caught her face with his hands and then she was pulled up like root being weeded out.

 

He felt her arms wrap around him and collapsed, pulling her on top of him.  
"We have to go." Oakley spoke.  
"Furtherest we can?" Megan dragged a hand over his chest and clasped his hand tightly.  
"Further than even that." he replied.  
Now they were bound to each other, both birthed from the soil and free to roam.  
They left at dawn.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The villagers pondered on what had happened over at the Greens old farm, then entire place went up in flames, the only thing that alerted any of them was the wandering animals. No smoke had been sighted. While returning the hens Jeff Foley had found the sheds nothing more than ash and the entire cottage roof a charred mess of collapsed beams. They never found the remains of Megan or of her husband Oakley.


End file.
